Code UCCI
by Mr. Dusk
Summary: An Alternative Universe fic where Eddward Marion Leavitt discovers an incredible machine: The Unlimited Compressed Coded Interface. Based on Code Lyoko. Currently on hiatus.
1. A Beginning Part 1

In a dark dorm room with the only light emitting from a lone computer monitor, a young boy wearing a red sweater vest with a white button-up shirt underneath it, black shorts and a black toque hat sat at the computer. He was typing a journal, which read:

"_I have many things I want to write about, but I am not exactly sure how to write it. I suppose I should start from the beginning. It all started last week, and what a week that was. It started the day I made my first friends…"_

* * *

Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Eddward, Eddward Marion Leavitt but my friends call me "Double-D". I am currently a 9th grade student here at Anton Academy, a private school in Toronto that teaches the 7th to 12th grade. Before, I was mostly home schooled, but due to recent issues with my family (that I'm not at liberty to talk about) I had to begin going to an actual education institution. I live in the boy's dormitory at Anton Academy, and I currently have no roommate as per requested (I don't want anyone to interfere with my studies or touch my things), and I've been attending classes since the school year started last month, which was sometime in September.

I've settled into my little 'sanctuary' quite well, I brought most of my personal items including my own customized computer. All the other items include various clothes, books, stationary supplies, some tools, and parts to various electronic devices that I use for my hobby: inventing. I dunno how I started, but I always enjoyed taking things apart to see how they work and try to put them back together. Sometimes improving them in the process, like my aforementioned computer. How is this relevant to what happened a week ago? Well, I'm glad you asked.

During my first month at Anton Academy, I didn't really leave campus grounds aside from a weekly trip to the convenience store. On one trip, I took a slight detour down to the docks on the way back to the academy. It was there that I found it: an old abandoned warehouse. The name on the side had been old and faded so I couldn't make it out. Curious of such a thing in this day and age, I ventured in. The warehouse turned to be a dream come true, with parts of what I can only guess were old robotics were strewn all over the place. They were perfect for some of my existing projects, and a few extra ones would be good for later projects.

The problem was that I couldn't carry much. I'm not really ashamed of my weak body, but I became over-cumbered and I was not able to gather all the materials I could need and want. I managed to obtain some materials I needed for an existing project and remembered the warehouse location for later usage.

I had planned to go to the warehouse again one week later, but as I tried to leave, my path was blocked.

"Hey, there he is. The so-called genius!"

I never thought that a private school would have oppressors, but I suppose I've been surprised a lot this week. Anton Academy's Hockey Club was composed of tall and large students, most of which older than me. Even our Football Club did not have such gigantic and menacing students as this club. A small group of that club of around five stood between me and the door. I recognized one of them from my Art and English classes. He was tall and had one eyebrow over his listless-looking eyes that were semi-covered by a mess of red hair . He was grinning and wore a bright green coat over the club's uniform with black sweats.

"I heard that he was home-schooled, this little fish probably hasn't gotten his cherry popped!"

"That's just because he's a shut-in, with a lot of time on his hands for homework."

"Yeah, which is why he's gonna help us out."

I figured that the red-headed guy wasn't really part of this group, he was just following them. I needed to get out, but if I turned around they would probably catch me so I did the only thing I could do.

"Um…excuse me, could I please just-"

"What's that?" the leader asked as he stuck his face in front of mine. He was incredibly tall. "I can't hear you."

"Um…please, can you just let me-"

"What? Speak louder!"

"Would you let me out please!"

I covered my mouth, I don't normally yell, but when I do, it usually gets the point across. Well, not for the five players started laughing at me.

"This guy is funny!" the lead hockey player commented. "I think we're gonna get along just fine…"

The group wanted me to do their homework, but I declined. The leader of the group grabbed me and put me up against the wall.

"Listen smart guy, our club manager says that if we don't keep our grades up, we'll be off the team. None of us wants that, so do us and the school a favor and do our homework."

"Um..hey Alan, I thought you said you weren't gonna hurt him." said the red-headed guy.

"I said I wouldn't if he accepted, but since he isn't, we'll just have to-"

"Hey, what's going on over here?"

The gaze of the hockey players looked upon a short and chubby student who seemed to have heard the commotion. He wore a dark yellow hooded sweatshirt and jeans. There seemed to be a certain rough and rugged aura around the boy, not one that was visible to the naked eye mind you. But you could just sense it in the air.

"Beat it, shrimp." the leader said. He glared into the boy's eyes. "This has nothing to do with you."

"Shrimp?" he asked, smirking a bit. "Ya callin' me a shrimp?"

The leader who was holding me let go and walked over to the short guy. He towered over him a good half a meter. Honestly, I myself was on the verge of crying right now.

"Yeah, I'm calling you a shrimp."

"Huh, from what I've heard, that's how your ex-boyfriend described you in bed."

The other players laughed at this, I suppressed a giggle. The boy himself gave the hockey jock the bird with both hands. That's when the leader punched him. This seemed to have the effect of a normal man hitting a piece of iron: it did nothing. The kid just took the hit and was unfazed, as if he had experienced far, far worse.

"The hell did you say?" The hockey player's brownish skin was turning red.

"Alright, alright, knock it off boys!"

The yell came from outside as three girls walked into the dormitory.

"Oh snap, the disciplinary committee!" one of the hockey players yelled as his afro stuck up in the air even more. "Come on guys, let's bolt!"

The players began to scatter, only the red-headed one stayed behind. The leader managed to throw the short guy off him and run away too. Two of the girls ran after the players and one stayed behind.

"Okay, what were you idiots doing this time?"

* * *

Anton Academy's Disciplinary Committee consisted of the dean's three daughters. Each, while not exactly blood related, share the same father (I was later explained to that the eldest one, Lee Kanker, is dean Kanker's only child that he had and now has custody over with his now divorced wife. Marie, the second eldest, is the dean's godchild, and her parents had tragically passed away when she was a young child. The youngest one, May, is the dean's stepchild he accepted when he was remarried around twelve years ago). The three of us left behind were being interrogated by the youngest of the three: May Kanker. She wore a grey sweater and a red skirt. I explained to her about what had happened.

"Oh Alan, that idiot spends more time in the penalty box than he does on the ice." she commented as we were all leaning against the wall. "I'm surprised you didn't run away, Ed."

"Eddy got hit, I wanted to make sure he was okay May." the red headed said as he began to get up the courage to speak.

The short guy laughed a bit as he smiled at the much larger boy. "Ed, I've had _girls_ hit me harder than that," he said, causing May Kanker to sigh. "I just didn't think he would hit anyone outside of the rink, the spaz."

"Well, I'll let you guys off with a warning this time." she sternly said. "Stay out of trouble, or else you'll be scrubbing _all _the floors in Anton Academy."

May Kanker left the boy's dormitories, I thanked the boy named Eddy. "Oh, um, Eddy isn't it?" I asked, hesitant as the smaller boy turned around. "Thank you for standing up for me."

"Don't mention it kid, I didn't do anything." he said as he pulled out a cigarette and a lighter. Eddy soon started to smoke right inside the dorms, the nerve. "What's your name anyway kid?"

"Oh um…my name is Eddward."

"Hey!" the taller boy exclaimed. "That's like me!"

"Well, yes, but mine has two Ds instead of one."

"I haven't seen you around school before." Eddy told us as he took a puff from his cigarette, blowing it out a nearby window.

"That's because I uh…spend most of my time in my room," I admitted. I felt a bit disappointed in myself for saying this. "I was just going to go to the store…"

"Oh really?" Eddy asked as he tapped his cigarette on the rim of the window. "I was just gonna pick up another pack there later. You won't mind if me and Ed come, will ya?"

I somehow found myself dragged along by Eddy, who told Ed to follow in suit.

* * *

"So, where are you from Double-D?"

"'Double-D'?" I asked, wondering why he was calling me this.

"Yeah, that's what I'm calling ya, so that both you and lumpy don't get confused when I say your names," he stated "So where are ya from my man?"

"Um…Greater Sudbury."

"Cool, I'm from Vancouver myself."

"Isn't that quite a ways away from here?"

"Yeah, my parents really wanted to get rid of me, so they sent me all the way over here a couple years ago." Eddy said as he threw his cigarette on the sidewalk, stomping on it to put it out. "They don't pick me up or visit in the summer, so I just stay here all year round. It sucked at first, but by last year, I got the jist of things."

I quickly changed the subject, turning my attention towards Ed. "Um…what about you, Edward?" I asked as a smile grinned on his face.

"Oh, Ed is fine my new friend!"

"Ok Ed, where are you from by any chance?"

"Toronto!"

"You're from here?"

"Heck yeah!" he exclaimed. "My parents own a department store in the shopping district."

"So…did they send you to Anton for a more advanced education?"

"No, they just wanted me out of the house."

Different person, same reason. We reached the store and bought a couple of assorted everyday things. Ed also bought some doughnuts, which he started devouring like an animal the moment he paid for them. Eddy seemed to have connections with the man running the register, since he was able to purchase a pack of cigarettes without any hassle despite being a minor. We left the store, and I started to heading the way I went last week.

"Hey Double-D, where ya goin'?" Eddy asked, a tad frustrated. "School's the other way!"

I stopped, remembering I had others with me. "Oh, sorry fellows…but…um…I was also…"

"Well spit it out Captain Stutters, I ain't got time for stuttering."

"There's this place that I was going to go."

"What, you got more cash to spend at another store?"

"No but…umm…"

"Fine, c'mon Ed."

"Gotcha Eddy!"

I lead the other two down to the abandoned warehouse.

"Why the hell are we here?" Eddy asked as I saw him looking around the abandoned warehouse with a disgruntled look on his face.

"Well, um, you see-"

"What did I say about you stuttering?"

"To stutter is to speak in tongues Double-D." Ed joked.

I took a deep breath, I told the two about how I came across the warehouse.

* * *

"So let me get this straight, you just waltzed in here, not knowing if it was dangerous or not?" Eddy asked as he looked at me as if he was talking to someone with special needs.

"It's abandoned allure aroused my attention."

Ed looked aside. "Try saying **that **five times fast."

I asked the two for assistance in retrieving parts for my inventions. Seeing that they were, of course, a lot stronger than me.

"What's in it for us?" Eddy asked as he folded his arms.

"Um…well I don't have much money," I told them as I looked down. "My parents only send enough for monthly groceries."

"I'm not asking for money."

"Greed imprisons all, Double-D."

The three of us agreed that in return for their help, I would help them with homework. We started gathering pieces inside the warehouse.

"Ed here isn't really the studying type, you see."

"Oh, I've been meaning to ask but…how do you two know each other?"

"We share a room," Eddy said as he picked up a decent sized heap of wires. "The bigwigs at the school thought it would be hilarious if they put a tall guy and a short guy in the same room. Kinda like that book about mice."

"Bottom bunk for life!"

"We've had the same room since 7th grade, so needless to say, we know each other pretty well."

"Makes sense…Ed can you get that piece over by the wall?"

"Why yes my new chum!"

Ed went to get the piece I asked him to get when he found something rather out of the ordinary. "Hey guys!" Ed exclaimed, getting our attention. "There's a door over here!"

Eddy and I walked over to see Ed try to open the door. It creaked a bit but didn't open. I was a bit surprised the old thing didn't fall apart upon being touched.

"It's busted Ed, like some chicks after I get with them." Eddy said, chuckling a bit.

"That's not a very nice thing to do to those poor little chicks Eddy." Ed told his vertically challenged friend as he pulled on the door. Despite his muscles flexing up and sweat pouring from the boy, the door wouldn't budge.

"Oh my, please don't strain yourself Ed."

"Don't worry Double-D, I can get it…"

"Yeah, Ed is crazy strong." Eddy told me. "I think it's God's way of compensating or something."

Ed grabbed hold on the handle and pulled hard, it somehow managed to open the door. We all looked in, and saw it was an elevator. "Cool!" Ed yelled as he walked in.

"Ya think it still works?" Eddy said as he walked in.

"I'm not sure…does electricity still run in this place?" I asked as I walked in. We looked at the control panel, and Eddy pushed a few buttons. "Nope, it's not working."

"Hey! What does THIS button do?" Ed pushed the big red button at the bottom that said "DO NOT TOUCH". The elevator gave a lurch, and the door slammed shut.

"Yeah, that can't be good." Eddy was right, the elevator started falling. Before I knew it, everything went black and I lost consciousness.

* * *

The next thing I remember is waking up to Ed giving me CPR and Eddy complaining about how he fell on his keys. "Edward, I'm quite alright, thank you!" I yelled, getting back up. I wiped my mouth with the sleeve of my shirt, hoping to rub off any of Ed's saliva.

"Double-D! You're alive!"

After recovering, Ed opened up the elevator door and the three of us walked out to see a giant electronic structure. All three of us were flabbergasted, having never seen anything like this. Even the most advanced technology looked primitive in comparison to this.

"Wow! This is like the Tesla coil they used in 'Space Cow IV: The Tainted Milk'!"

"Actually, it looks like a bunch of backup generators that seem to be connected together." I pointed out as I took out a handkerchief and dusted one off a bit. "These models are so old and dusty… 1982 perhaps?"

"Lets get them working so it can power the elevator and we can get the hell outta here."

"I'll see what I can do."

Thankfully, there were fuel reserves down there that could be used to work the generators. I managed to get them working, much to my amazement. Lights came on overhead and we headed for the elevator.

"I'm guessing the top button gets us out."

"Probably, since the top button says 'Level Floor'"

"Up we go!" Ed pushed the button that read, "B4".

"Ed, you idiot!" Eddy yelled, with the elevator going up at nearly neck-breaking speed. All while playing opera music as if whoever designed this elevator had a horrible sense of humor. It soon came to a screeching halt, and the door opened up. We looked out of the door to see a large room with a dark blue light emitting from the ceiling. The light showed a giant platform in the middle, and a chair with a large keyboard attached to it. There was a large door on the other side of the room as well.

"Cool…"

The three of us walked in, with none of us really knowing what to expect.

"What do you suppose this is?" asked Eddy as he looked around the room.

"I'm not sure, I've never seen anything like it."

"I have! From Blarg Wars Episode-"

"Ed, shut up," Eddy told him, slapping him across the face. "This isn't some kinda movie prop."

"Fine, geez…"

"Excuse me guys, I need to take a rest." I took a seat at the chair. Ed went over to the door on the other side and opened it.

"Hey guys, there's stairs behind this door!"

Eddy walked over and looked in. "Yep, there sure are…wanna go take a look?" Eddy looked over at me, with Ed also giving a curious stare.

"You two can go ahead, weak constitution and all."

"Alright, we'll be back." Eddy replied as him and Ed walked down the creaky staircase. "Ed do you see a light switch anywhere?"

"Ooh, there it is Eddy!" Ed reached somewhere, and accidentally knocked Eddy down who fell down the stairs.

I ran over and called out to him when the falling stopped. "Eddy! Are you alright?"

"Granddad, that's my waffle…"

Ed jumped over the railing and fell all the way down, I ran down the stairs, stopped halfway for a glass of water, and then climbed the rest of the way down. Panting, I said, "It's a good thing I don't have asthma or I would be in real trouble…"

Ed was unharmed, and Eddy was alright and picking at his teeth. "What took ya?" Eddy asked as he spit out a little bit of blood. "We've been waiting for five minutes."

At the bottom of the stairs were six (although one of them looked smashed up) pod-like machines that connected to the wall. On the other side was a giant computer tower that had a monitor near the top of the tower. There was a large power switch in the "Off" position on the tower.

"What do you suppose all this is for?" Eddy asked.

"How would I know?" I asked rhetorically. "I've never seen any technology like this before."

"I thought you knew about computers and stuff?"

"I do, I've just haven't seen anything like this." I told Eddy, dumbfounding him. "It looks custom built, perhaps from raw materials?"

The three of us looked at it for a few seconds, none of us really knew what to make of it.

"Should we see what it does?" I asked the others.

"I dunno, we're not even sure what it is aside from being a computer," Eddy replied.

"Well, if we turn it on, we can find out." Ed suggested, coming off as being slightly more intelligent than usual. "If it's just a machine then it can't be too dangerous and we can always turn it off."

I, along with Eddy, was surprised at Ed's suggestion. "No offense big guy, but I wasn't expecting you to say that." Eddy told him.

"What? It's not like I'm an idiot or something…"

"Alright, let's see what it does." agreed Eddy. I walked over and tried to operate the switch.

"Let me get that…" Ed walked over and lifted the switch easily. The machine turned on, and started emitting some static and beeps. The monitor glowed a bright blue, and the words "Unlimited Compressed Coded Interface" which then became the acronym UCCI.

"Ooh-sea?" Eddy pronounced as if it was a full word. "Man, who comes up with this stuff?"

After that, a weird eye-like image flashed on the screen with the acronym "UEO" under it. Then a bunch of code appeared, almost giving Ed a seizure. Then the words: "Program: UCCI has been resumed. Welcome back Professor."

"This thing isn't doing anything." Eddy said. "It's a waste of space."

"What about the pods?" asked Ed. The three of us went over to the giant closed structures. Not even with Ed's superhuman strength could they be opened.

"Come on, this place is full of junk, I'm outta here." Eddy started up the stairs, with Ed and I following not too far behind him. Ed then came back and carried me up the stairs up on top of his broad shoulders..

"Thank you Ed."

"Don't mention it pal."

"Yeah, you were holding us…whoa…"

The three of us looked inside the room up above and saw a giant spherical light coming from the platform. There were holographic computer screens being projected from the sphere.

"Cool!" Ed yelled as he set me down in the computer chair.

"This is…so advanced…I can't believe that this is so far underground!" I was on the verge of squealing, but I didn't want to cause a commotion. I then tried to see if I can get the monitor to work using the keyboard. The message "Loading Interface" appeared on-screen, sparking my interest even more.

"Hey, is this a game?" Eddy asked as he walked over and put his hand on my shoulder. "Can you see if it has Angry Bats?"

"It's an interface…it's a computing tool used to interact with components on both hardware and software levels."

"Uh…English?"

"He can control stuff using it." Ed pointed out.

"Well why didn't ya say so Einstein?"

After the interface loaded, three screens lit up and the sphere showed what looked like a 3-D world. Ed passed his hand through the holographic image, soon surprised that all he felt was a beam of light. On one screen was what looked like a sleeping girl.

"Huh?" Eddy asked with a perplexed look. "Who the heck is that?"

"Hello?" Ed asked as he pressed his face into the screen.

The girl awoke, she had a unique look to her. Something not exactly natural, that's for sure. She had long purple hair and wore a white dress with a floral pattern to it.

"Um…excuse me," she said in a cared tone of voice. "Who are you three?"

"Whoa guys it talked." Eddy said as he stepped back with a nervous expression.

"Yes, the 'it' talked," she said, suddenly turning more assertive. "You didn't answer my question."

"Fascinating!" I yelled, now letting out a high pitch squeal. Ed and Eddy giggled a bit at me as my face blushed. I'm pretty sure that was a strike on my man-card. "Gentlemen… I believe we have stumbled upon a Virtual Intelligence!"

"Cool! Just like in '3001: Voyage to Jupiter'!"

"Are any of you listening to me?"

"My apologies…we've just never seen anything like you before." I said as I regained my composure. "My name is Eddward Leavitt."

"But we call him Double-D," Eddy said a he leaned his shoulder on mine and then looked back at the girl. "I'm Eddy Sonnen, the biggest stud you'll see around these parts."

"And I'm Edward Bray, but my friends call me Ed."

"Everyone calls you that," Eddy pointed out, chuckling a bit.

"What is your name… Virtual Intelligence?" I asked, hoping not to offend.

"Well…I am not exactly sure."

"It could be in your coding…hmm, let me see…" I looked though the code, but to no avail. "Hmm…I can't find anything that includes you."

"Wouldn't that make her a virus?" Eddy asked.

"But…I do not believe that I'm causing any harm."

For now, we had to think up a name. After all, calling her "Virtual Intelligence" made her sound like an AI rather than a person. Not only that, but I was sure that it was far too long of a name to call anyone.

"I think for now we'll call you…hmmm…." Ed pondered as he put his finger to his lip and looked up. It took him only a few seconds to shout out: "Hanako!"

"Umm…why?" she asked, wondering why Ed came up with that name for her.

"Doesn't she look like a Hanako guys?"

"She kinda looks like a character from one of those Japanese games you play," Eddy commented. "So yeah, I guess so."

"Hanako….I like it." she smiled, happy about her new name.

"So Hanako, can you tell me where exactly you are?" I asked.

"I do not know."

"What do your surroundings look like?"

"I seem to be in a large, circular structure." she told us. "The walls have a bunch of codes. You know, tons of zeros and ones going up and down everywhere."

"Cool, like in 'The Vertrix' and 'The Vertex Unloaded'?"

"No, it is more like a matrix code."

"Hanako, can you find a way out of wherever you are?"

"There doesn't appear to be any door."

"Try forcing your way out!" Eddy yelled, clenching his fists.

"Yeah! It works for baby chicks!" Ed chipped in.

"I will try to push on the wall…" Hanako soon let out a gasp before she went straight through the wall.

"Hanako?" I asked fearfully. "Where did you go? Can you still hear us?"

"Yes I can, but…I can see a forest!"

"A forest?" Eddy asked. "With like, trees and stuff?"

"Yes Eddy, that's a forest, you know, with red, orange and yellow leaves falling down trees." What she described sounded an awful lot like autumn, which was ironically the season our world was in right now. "But I also see where I came from. It looks like a tower."

"A tower you say?" I asked, very intrigued. "Interesting… say Hanako, can you see anything else, like a path or something?"

"No…not much of a…" her voice came to a stop, and crawling noises could be heard in the background. "Eddward, I see some creatures."

"Wow, really?" This world just seemed to never run out of surprises. "More virtual intelligence? This is incredible! Tell me, what do they look like?"

"They look like…spiders maybe?" she asked, fairly unsure. To be honest, I wondered if Hanako had ever actually seen a real arachnid before. "They come up to my waist."

"I'm gonna try to put it on visual," I said, cracking my fingers.

"You can do that?" Eddy asked as he and Ed looked at me with confusion.

"I can at least try." I typed away, and soon a visual opened up. I saw Hanako and the spiders that looked like regular spiders from our world. But, they were much larger, and of a strange chrome and black color. Like any true spider they had eight legs, a head, thorax and abdomen. On the abdomen was strange single eye-like design, like the UEO one, along with a spinner. The head had what looked like eight eyes, although quite dark, and a massive pair of mandibles.

"There's that logo again!" Ed pointed out.

"It is…I wonder what it means…"

Suddenly, both kinds of "eyes" on the spiders started to glow with a neon red color. As my comrades and I expected, that meant the spiders were hostile. What a shame, and here I like spiders.

"That can't be good." Eddy said, stating the obvious.

Out from the spider's mandibles came out a white laser, which hit Hanako. A screen showing Hanako's picture showed up with what seemed to be a health bar that went down.

"Hanako! Get out of there!" Eddy yelled as Hanako ran back inside the tower.

"Hanako, are you alright?" I was worried, since I've never seen a program actually be harmed before. Well, not counting a video game, but those aren't real. This on the other hand seemed to be more than just a game. And even if it _was _just some sort of game, it sure did make me care for Hanako.

"Yes, it stings a little bit but I am okay," she said, sighing as she clenched her arm. "I'm starting to feel better now."

"I think being in the tower recovers her health," said Ed. "Like it's a healing zone."

"How did you come up with that?" I asked.

"Well, her health bar is going up," Ed pointed out. On the screen her health bar area seemed to be increasing. I think I read this guy wrong. He is a lot smarter than he comes off as.

"Eddward, I do not think I want to leave the tower."

"Can't you just fight back?"

"Fight?" she asked, looking at herself. "I am not sure…"

"She doesn't have a weapon Eddy." Ed pointed out to her. "And she doesn't look like the type to go unarmed either."

"Even if I did, I am not sure if I could use it…" Hanako admitted.

"Well, you probably shouldn't leave the tower for now," I told her as I thought on this. "Maybe I can see if there's a way I can get rid of the creatures."

"Holy cow!" Eddy screamed, causing the rest of us to turn to him.

"What is it Eddy?"

"Guys, what time is it?"

I quickly looked at my watch, it was past one in the morning. "Oh my…it's way past curfew!"

Eddy put his arms behind his head. "Oh man, I can't afford to get caught out late again guys! We're doomed!"

"What is the matter?" Hanako asked. I guess none of us couldn't blame her for not knowing what a "curfew" was. Oh all the explaining I'd have to do, telling her all I know about the physical world. Of course, that would be for some other time.

"I'm gonna get lethal injection for this!"

"Eddy, this is Ontario, not Texas." I reassured him. "I sincerely doubt we would be put on Canada's nonexistent death row for returning to school late. Although I do agree that we should head back now. Hanako, we will talk to you again tomorrow, I promise!"

"Okay then. Goodbye Ed, Double-D, and Eddy!"

* * *

And so we ran as fast as we could. I myself was a little drowsy, and had slightly challenging time finding the way back. Thankfully Ed and Eddy knew their way around the area far better than I. So in half an hour, the three of us made our way back onto campus. As the three of us were about to open up the door to the boy's dormitory, a light hit us. We turned around and saw three girls with flashlights, pointing them directly at us.

"You three are coming with us," Lee Kanker said in a stern manner.

"Oh noes, we're going to be tortured until they get what they want, and then kill us!" Ed yelled before smirking and saying, "Just like in the movies."

They took us to the garden shed, with Lee locking up the door. May had us all in zip cuffs and kneeled down as Marie pulled out what looked like a wooden sword or a bokken to be precise. She whacked at Eddy with it first, who let out a yell when hit. It left some small bruises on his face. I was whacked next, collapsing upon the impact of the sword hitting my head. Looking up the best I could, I saw her smash the sword into Ed's head, causing it to crack in two. Oh how I envied that Ed seemed to be made of iron.

"Alright, I think they learned their lesson," Lee said. I could tell by the tone of her voice that she just wanted to see us get hurt, not actually punished. "May, take them outta the cuffs, and then escort them back to their dorms…I'll see you around Eddy." Lee blew Eddy a kiss, and Eddy grumbled something under his breath.

Lee and Marie walked out of the garden shed, and May started taking the zip cuffs off of us. "Just what were you idiots doing?" May asked as she removed Ed's zip cuffs. "You guys know that it's light's out by eleven, and twelve on weekends."

"Um… we were… fishing!" Ed said out loud.

"Are you serious?" May asked as she took the zip cuffs off of me next. I struggled standing back up though, and Ed had to help me back up.

"Yeah, fishing, what is it illegal to fish now?" Eddy told her as May took his zip cuffs off.

"Well none of you guys have any sort of fishing license, and no fishing gear either!"

"We rented!" Ed exclaimed with a big grin on his face.

"And you gave the gear back this late at night?" May asked. "In October of all times too?"

"Well, yeah, it was a twenty-four hour shop, and open all year round," Eddy told her, sweating a little.

"What was the name of it?"

"Uh… Wallace's Worms and Stuff."

May sighed as she said, "Okay, I'll try to give you the benefit of the doubt. Just don't do this again."

* * *

May escorted the three of us back to the boy's dormitories. Once we were dropped off, May said goodnight to us and went towards the girl's dormitories. We went inside the boy's dorm and we stopped at a door that had a sign that said "KEEP OUT - Unless You're Hot"

"This is our spot. Our home away from home, Casa de Ed and Eddy."

Eddy opened the door with his room key, showing a room with a lot more stuff than mine. Judging from their personalities, I could tell what belonged to who. The posters of old B-movies were Ed's, while the posters of women in shameless poses were Eddy's. Then the bookcase had comic books and manga that must have been Ed's, while the issues of Playguy were obviously Eddy's. A disco ball hung from the ceiling, and on a desk was a lava lamp. Across the bunk-bed was an average sized television with a Ybox 180 hooked up to it along with some cases of games that sat on a table in their closet. I guessed both of them used the game console (I myself don't really care for video games). Curiously I looked into the mini-fridge, which contained a wide variety of beverages including soft drinks and what I suspected was alcohol, just as expected. Just how did these two get a room like this?

Ed soon walked in and plopped down on the messy bottom bunk. Somehow he took off his clothes aside of his underwear and undershirt in less than a second. "Hey Eddy, wanna play some "Cogs of Battle 3" tonight?"

"Ed, it's almost two in the morning and we have stupid school tomorrow," Eddy said as he took off most of his clothes, only leaving a wife-beater and a pair of boxers on. He climbed up to his top bunk and lied down, staring at his disco ball.

The smell of the room disturbed my sinuses, so I decided to leave. However, in a stroke of clumsiness, I tripped on their clothes, causing me to crash into the floor. Looking underneath their bunk-bend, I saw what appeared to be a bag of questionable stuff. "Just how on earth do you guys get all of this, especially at your age." I commented, getting both of their attention.

"Well, let's just say I know some people, who know some people, who know some people." Eddy told me as he rolled over on his side.

"What about the money, surely this stuff must be fairly costly?"

"Don't you know that athletes get rewarded with money here Double-D?" asked Ed as if I was clueless, which admittedly, I was. "I'm in hockey all year round, while Eddy does wrestling in the winter and baseball in the spring."

"To be honest, I never pictured either of you two as being student-athletes."

"Look, there's a sleeping bag in the closet," Eddy told me. "Wanna crash here for the night?"

"Um… I'll pass, goodnight guys."

"Alright, suit yourself man," Eddy said as he clapped his hands, causing the lava lamp (which was the only sort of light in this room, minus the television and mini-fridge on occasions) to turn off. At this point I closed the door to their room and sluggishly walked back to my own. The moment my eyes landed upon my bed, the next thing I knew, I crashed into a deep slumber...

* * *

My alarm clock went off at seven in the morning as usual. I normally get seven to nine hours of sleep a night, so needless to say, I was a little out of it for Friday. Anyway, the three of us met up after classes and decided to go check up on Hanako. However, we soon ran into a certain acquaintance of ours...

"I checked that bait shop, the night manager said you three were never there." May told us, blocking the way out of campus.

"Ooh…she's good…" Eddy complimented with a grudging amount of respect.

"You three aren't going anywhere until you tell me where you were last night, unless you want to have detention for the next three weeks."

"She can do that?" I asked Eddy.

"You don't get out much, do ya kid?"

So instead of being put in detention, we decided to tell May about Hanako and the computer we've found. She didn't believe us at first, but then we went ahead and showed her. Obviously, she was amazed with the sheer existence of Hanako.

"Impossible. I don't believe what I'm seeing. Am I dreaming?" May speculated, she pinched Eddy.

"OW, what did you do THAT for?" Eddy yelled.

"Just checking if I was still in reality."

"Next time, pinch yourself!" I stopped them before their argument got more pointless. Turning back to Hanako, we picked up where we left off from yesterday.

"Lets see if there's a way to get rid of the monsters outside." I told the others.

"Monsters?" May asked."It's better if you see for yourself," I pulled up a screen showing the forest form before, three spiders were patrolling the outside of the tower.

"Those are some weird-looking bugs."

"Actually, the correct term is arachnids."

"Who cares? Same diff." Eddy quipped.

I typed feverishly, though I couldn't find a terminate command. At least not an obvious one. By accident, I brought up a log of past command entries. There were my entries of bringing up visuals but then there were some that were not made by me. Two of them sparked my interest. One was a set of commands that was used countless of times, it was named in the code as "Return To The Past". Another was a set of commands that was used twice, and was the last thing the computer did before I got to use it. This set of commands were simply entitled "Scan".

"'Scan'? What, is there a printer attached to this thing?" Eddy asked.

"I don't see any." I told him.

"Maybe it means something else? Like scanning the area?" May suggested. I went ahead and ran the set of codes. A noise came from downstairs and Ed ran to the stairs and looked down.

"Hey guys! One of the pods opened!" we all went over and saw that indeed one of the six pods had opened. This was only the first step of the 'scan', the second part, according to the computer, was to put someone inside a pod.

* * *

"Eddy, we drew straws, " May told Eddy who was shaking a bit. "You lost, get into the pod.

"Yeah, but uh…actually I have a stomach ache." Eddy clenched his stomach in an overly dramatic way.

"Ooh! I got some antacid!" Ed said, pulling out a bottle of DUMS DX.

"Thanks Ed, you're a real help." Eddy rolled his eyes.

"No problem!"

Eddy went down the stairs, and climbed into the now open scanner."Are you ready Eddy?" I called down.

"As ready as I'll ever be," From the tone of Eddy's voice, it sounds like he was accepting the possibility that he could be seriously harmed. "This isn't gonna mess up my hair, will it?"

The pod closed with Eddy inside it. Eddy's body was being scanned, and his physical features were shown on-screen.

What happened next, none of us had expected.

To Be Continued…


	2. A Beginning Part 2

In a dark dorm room with the only light emitting from a lone computer monitor, Edd was drinking iced coffee in a can. There was a knock at his door.

"Yo Double-D, you still up? It's like two in the morning."

"Yes Eddy, and I would appreciate it if you didn't make much noise, I want to concentrate."

"Alright, alright…I was just going to the John and saw the light, God."

Edd went back to typing in his journal.

_"Where was I…oh yeah. What happened next, none of us had expected…"_

* * *

The on-screen visual of Eddy closed and a bunch of code appeared with the word "SCANNING" above it. After a few moments, the word changed from "SCANNING" to "COMPLETE". The on-screen visual of Eddy opened up again.

"…is THAT supposed to Eddy?" May asked.

"Shhh! Something's happening!" Ed told her.

On the forest screen, a figure was materializing in mid-air. The figure looked like Eddy, but he wore white face paint with black over his eyes. The figure also wore a jester's outfit with the top right being red with green spades, the top left being black with red hearts, the bottom right being black with purple diamonds and the bottom left was red with orange clubs. His jester hat had green, red, purple, and orange colors. The figure fell to the forest floor near the tower. It looked at his arms and legs.

"What the hell am I WEARING?" Eddy's voice came from the computer. The spiders patrolling the tower noticed him and moved towards him with red eyes.

"Eddy, look out! They're coming in for an attack!" I yelled at the screen.

Eddy just shrugged, "Tsk, are ya kidding? I ain't afraid of any stupid bugs…"

"Eddy, they're not bugs." I told him.

"I DON'T CARE!" Eddy looked right at the spiders, "COME GET SOME!"

The spiders shot their white lasers at Eddy, who quickly dodged them with ease.

"Go Eddy, go!" cheered Ed.

"Whoa! It's so easy to move in this thing!"

This was getting us nowhere. "Eddy, could you please get rid of them? That's why you're there, remember?"

"Alright MOM, what's my weapon?"

I looked into the code, Eddy did have what appeared to be a weapon.

"Eddy, there should be a weapon on you"

"I don't see a weapon, do YOU see a weapon?"

"Try reaching into your hat!" Ed told him.

May gave Ed confused look, "His hat?"

Eddy reached into his jester hat. "Let me see…HEY! I FEEL SOMETHING!"

Eddy pulled out what looked like a… hand of playing cards.

"…the crap? THIS IS MY WEAPON? USELESS CARDS?"

May started laughing.

"SHUT UP MAY, AT LEAST I HAVE A WEAPON! Freaking pieces of crap…"

Eddy threw the cards to the side, when they hit the forest floor, they exploded.

Yes, I couldn't believe it myself, none of us could. The cards exploded. Eddy's avatar stared in disbelief…and didn't notice when he got shot with a white laser. "OW! YOU BASTARDS!"

Eddy reached into his hat and pulled out another hand of cards. He took one of the cards, a Joker to be exact, and got ready to throw it, but then it started to glow a bright light.

"What the…"

All of us looked at the screen.

"What is happening?" Hanako asked, I was not sure how to answer her. From the Joker card, the bright light shined so bright that the screen went white. When the visual returned, the spiders were gone.

"Eddy? What happened?" I asked.

"I dunno Double-D, I just saw a bright light and the freaking bugs vanished…YEAH! I BEAT THEM! WHOOO!"

"Yeah, out of dumb luck." May snorted.

"HEY! WHY DON'T YOU COME IN HERE AND SAY THAT TO MY FACE?"

May and Ed started laughing, I just groaned.

"So, is it safe outside? Can I go out?" Hanako asked.

"Sure Hanako, go on out and Eddy will be waiting for you."

Hanako went outside the tower, Eddy looked over at her and saw that she looked quite pretty for a girl who was stuck in what seemed to be a video game.

"Whoa…hello beautiful!"

Hanako looked at Eddy, her eyes went wide and she covered her mouth.

"No need to worry, I took care of those monsters for ya." Eddy said with a smug grin.

Hanako burst out laughing.

"I'm sorry, but you look absolutely ridiculous!"

Eddy grit his teeth in a frustrated grunt.

"This sucks, I have cards that freaking EXPLODE but I have to look like that assclown from Last Legend 6. What did I do wrong in the past life to deserve this…"

I sighed, "Well, the monsters are gone…why don't you two explore the world more?"

"OOH! OOH!" Ed was getting excited.

"Yes Ed?" I asked.

"Can I go too? I really, really, REALLY want to! Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? CAN I?"

"Yeah, Ed can use the exercise." May told me.

"Alright…Eddy?"

"Yeah, we heard. Don't worry I'll keep Hanako safe until the big guy shows up."

Ed headed for the pods, or scanners if you will. There didn't seem to be any spiders or hostiles of any kind on the map anyhow. I started up the scanning process. The same thing happened with Ed as it did with Eddy. Ed's body was being scanned, his physical features were shown on-screen. Then the visual closed and the same process with Eddy happened. When it was over, Ed's avatar materialized in mid-air near Eddy and Hanako. Ed's avatar looked like a prehistoric caveman, he wore a bearskin with a bear's head like a hood, around Ed's neck was a necklace of animal bones. Ed also had fur wristbands and calf bands, but bare feet. Ed landed on the forest ground, with a long wooden pole with a sharpened stone tied around one of its ends.

"COOL! I've become a BEAR!"

"Yeah Ed, let's go with that." Eddy remarked.

May looked over the both of them confused, "Why do they look like that anyway?" she asked.

I have to say, I was intrigued with the forms Ed and Eddy took but I didn't really give it much thought at the time. I had a bit of an idea that they represented a bit of their subconcious, but I'd like to see another person go in to test my hypothesis.

"May, would you want to go into UCCI as well?"

May waved me off, "I'll pass Double-D, I'd rather stay here in reality…"

Honestly I agreed with her, but I didn't say it, "Okay everyone, why don't you go have a look around? I'll keep an eye on the monitors for any more monsters."

* * *

May and I watched as Ed, Eddy, and Hanako explored the virtual forest. One of the on-screen monitors started tracking their movements in what looked like a map of the region. The tower from before even showed up on it.

"Anything so far?" I asked the group.

"Yeah, trees. Lots and lots of trees."

"I spy with my little eye…"

"Let me guess Ed, a tree?"

"Nope!"

"Is that another tower?" Hanako asked.

The visual showed another tower that looked the same as the first one. "I suppose so, why don't you three go in and have a look?"

"Yeah, I'm getting bored of all these damn trees…"

One by one, Ed, Eddy, and Hanako went into the tower. The inside looked about the same as the first one.

"WOW! This IS like the Vertex! This is AWESOME!"

"It just looks like a bunch of stupid numbers…"

"Hold on…something's different." Hanako told them.

The visual showed the three of them on what looked like a circular platform, Hanako walked to the side of the platform and looked down.

"Hanako, what are you doing?" I gasped as Hanako fell off the side.

"Hanako!" Ed jumped off the side after her. Eddy stayed on the platform.

"Can you hear me?" I was worried.

"What happened to them?" May asked.

"We're fine Double-D! We found another platform!" Ed's voice came from the computer.

I brought up another visual, and saw Ed's smiling face with Hanako behind him looking out of the tower.

"Wow…Ed, come take a look at this!"

"Hey! I'm coming too!"

Eddy jumped off the side too, but ended up on a different platform. Two more maps showed up on-screen.

"Hey Double-D, have you noticed this yet?"

May pointed at the sphere. In the sphere were three areas branching off the center of the sphere.

"I saw one there before, but now there's three…"

"Can everyone stay still for a minute please?"

Nobody moved, well except for Ed who started picking at his nose. I decided to name the regions on the map so we wouldn't lose track on what was where. I named the first region "Region One: Forest". The name went onto the map, and the name appeared on the sphere map as well over one of the areas.

"Alright, what do you see Hanako?"

"I see…oh wow…there's a lot of rocks…a black rocky surface with mountains! And is that…lava?"

Ed went over to look, "Yeah! VOLCANEOS! THIS IS SO COOL!"

"Are they active?" I asked.

"Yeah! Let's go check it out Hanako!"

"You two will NOT without Eddy. Who knows what could be out there…"

"Speaking of which, are you just gonna keep me waiting?"

I brought up Eddy's visual, he was laying on his side with one leg over the other and resting his chin on his fist.

"Sorry Eddy, go take a look."

Eddy got up and looked out of the tower.

"…dude…you are not going to believe this…"

May and I got closer to the screen.

"Why? What is it?" May asked.

"It's…it's…"

The anticipation…what could it be?

"It's like Toronto! Or even New York! There's a whole damn CITY here! But it's frozen!"

"Frozen?" I had a hard time processing this.

"Yeah! It's snowing, and everything looks like it's frozen! There's nobody here either! It's like a freaking ghost town!"

I couldn't believe it, "Eddy, will you go out into the city?"

Eddy walked out of the tower, and the visual showed what Eddy described. A huge city with many tall buildings like skyscrapers and office buildings but there was no lights, and they looked frozen, probably from all the snow.

"Eddy, tell me, is it cold?"

"No, at least I don't think it's cold..."

"Hey Double-D, you wanna wrap this up? It's starting to get late..." May told me.

I looked at the clock, it was getting to be around ten and it would probably take us half an hour to get back to the school. It seems that we would have to put our exploration on hold.

"Okay everyone, looks like exploration time is over."

"WHAT? But we were just making progress!" Eddy yelled back.

"Yeah, and I didn't get to play in the lava yet!" Ed yelled.

"Guys, do WANT to go back into the shed? Or would you rather the utility closet this time?"

"NOT THE CLOSET! NOT THE CLOSET!" Ed and Eddy both yelled back.

"What's the closet?" I asked May.

"Trust me, you don't want to know."

"It's an EVIL place Double-D!" Ed yelled, "It's dark and small and it is full of CLEANING PRODUCTS that make it smell like a dentist's office!"

With this information, I had Ed and Eddy devirtualized. I found the program as it correspond with the scanning command. I thought about devirtualizing Hanako too, but considering she seemed to be just a program, I wasn't sure if it would work or not. I tried it anyway on a whim but it didn't work as the program didn't seem to function with her as it had with Ed and Eddy. Anyhow, Ed and Eddy were out of UCCI and I could hear the two slowly walk up.

"What's taking them so long?" May asked.

I shrugged, "Why don't you go check?"

May scoffed and walked down the stairs, she later came back helping Ed and Eddy up the stairs. The two were exhausted, which was odd considering that they seemed to stay up past three in the morning quite often and still manage to be athletic.

"Man...it feels like I ran ten-thousand laps...what's wrong with me?" Eddy groaned.

"My everything is sore..." Ed also groaned.

"How in the world are we going to get them back to the school in this state?" I asked.

"Relax, I know a guy..." May told me as she carried the other two to the elevator.

* * *

Once outside, May made a call on her cell phone. We waited a bit until a truck showed up, a big man wearing a dark blue track suit with a bit of a scruffy beard got out. "Hey there May...what the hell are you kids doing out here so late?"

"I was going to the store and found these guys, two of them are incapable of walking back. That's where you come in." May told the man. The big man shrugged and lifted Ed and Eddy into the back of the truck. He then got into the front.

"Well, let's get all of y'all back to the school. Hop on in."

I followed May into the truck's cab, I didn't really know the big man but he seemed friendly enough and May knew him so he couldn't be too dangerous.

"So, I hear you're the new kid. The name's Sam, Sam Black. Though you can just call me Sam, everyone else does." the big man told me.

"Sam here is the P.E. Teacher, he's also the campus supervisor, and manages the nearly non-existent American football team with only two members."

"AHEM, we have FOUR members now, in case you didn't know."

"You still need at least thirty for a team...at the very, very least."

"Hey, we just started this year, give us a break!"

"WOULD YOU TWO SHUT UP? WE'RE TRYIN' TO SLEEP HERE!" Eddy yelled from the back.

* * *

To make a long story short, we got back on campus. Ed and Eddy got to their rooms, and I to mine. May went back to her dorm and Sam...well I'm not entirely sure where he went. Presumably back to his home, but from the conversation it seemed that he rather not talk about where he lived.

The next day, as I was walking out of my room, Eddy showed up out of nowhere and took me aside. "Hey Double-D, how about I show you around this prison?"

Never minding his sense of humor, I wanted to just go to the warehouse and find a way to hook up my own computers with the supercomputer so I could stay connected to Hanako on UCCI so I humbly declined. "I'll pass, I'd really like to go-"

"Nah, you need to get to know the people more! This is _your_ school now after all. Besides, it'll help with later in life."

Eddy ended up dragging me to the local eatery which was a cafeteria that was separate of the school that served meals for a nominal fee for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Eddy and myself bought some breakfast and sat down with Ed who looked like he was starting on his third plate.

"Oh my. Ed, isn't that a bit much?"

"Can't talk, eating." Ed casually said as he devoured an assorted amount of buttered toast, potatoes, gravy, bacon, and eggs.

Eddy looked at me, "Lemme tell ya Double-D, this guy's stomach works wonders. How's the food big guy?" Ed said something I couldn't understand due to his mouth being full, pieces of food shot out of his mouth and onto the table. Upon seeing this, he closed his mouth and washed everything down with orange juice.

"It's great! I'm lovin' it, and I need to be filled for today's practice!"

As Ed continued eating, Eddy waved his hand around our eating area which looked to be filled with rather larger students.

"To begin our tour, we of course have our student athletes. Most of which have lots of muscle and little brain but there are some that are alright, like me and lummox here."

Ed gave a thumbs up as he finished up another plate. He then went for a fourth one. I felt a presence behind me. "Hey dork, I have something to say to you." I turned around and saw a student that was taller than me and Eddy, but not as tall as Ed. He was quite skinny, and he wore an orange unzipped coat over a green T-shirt and crisp navy jeans with black tennis shoes. This student wore a red backwards ball cap over his red hair and he glared at Eddy with his green eyes. Eddy smugly grinned back at him.

"Ah, here's an example of the former." Eddy told me, "What's up, Kevin?"

"Hey, where the hell were you yesterday? I thought you said you'd help out with cleaning the gym class supply room. Sam had me clean the whole damn thing myself. You better have a good reason for ditching me."

Eddy kept his smug grin, "I said that? You must've been mistaken, I said I'd clean that next week." I could tell Eddy was lying. Kevin folded his arms.

"No you didn't, dilweed, and if you ditch me again I'll pound ya." Kevin then looked down at me, "Who's the nerd?" It was that obvious?

"This is Double D, he's new." Eddy nudged me, "Go on, say hello. He doesn't bite too much."

Hesitantly, I outstretched my hand, "Umm...greetings."

Kevin kept his arms folded, "He looks like a wimp. By the way, have you decided on being a member of the team yet?"

Eddy shook his head, "No way, American Football is for wusses who don't want to play Rugby."

Kevin scoffed, "Fine then, later dork." and walked out of the cafeteria.

"He seems...hostile." I told Eddy who just laughed.

"He's American, you get used to it. He's just mad because nobody wants to join his stupid team. Well, that and his girlfriend is constantly cheating on him but you probably shouldn't repeat that to his face."

I watched Kevin walk out of the cafeteria, and Ed came back and started eating some more. I saw a strange sight outside as most other students tried to stay on either side of the walkway.

"What's going on? It's like everyone is afraid of something." I asked Eddy, who chuckled some more.

"Well, you're half right. Everyone is afraid of somebody. Watch this, it'll be hilarious." Eddy pointed outside to someone coming down the walkway to the cafeteria. It was Marie Kanker, May's step-sister, she wore black slacks, black shoes, a black sweater, and a black jacket, her hair was short, straight, and oddly enough dyed a cerulean blue. She carried around her bokken. It looked like Kevin tripped on his feet and bumped into Marie, and in a quick move she smacked Kevin across the face with her sword and he fell to the ground. A bit of blood came spilled from his nose and Marie kept walking while everyone else went on with their business and tried not to get involved with what happened. Inside the cafeteria, Eddy was laughing his (pardon my French) ass off.

"He should've known better."

Trying to stay sane with the situation, I asked the obvious question. "Why did she do that?"

"Oh she does it to everyone, you might want to keep your distance from her." Eddy explained.

"She can get away with that?"

"Of course she can, she's the dean's daughter, a member of the disciplinary committee, and she's a girl. But anyway, I'd like to discuss the finer points of feminism conspiracy but we have so much more to do."

It looked as though we were finished with our meals, and Eddy stood up and threw his trash in a nearby bin. "Come on Double-D, we're just getting started. Later Ed." Eddy left the cafeteria and I followed after. We started walking around campus.

* * *

"Now I'll be honest with ya, there aren't really many cliques in this school. It's mostly just a lot of kids from families that are more better off than others, if you catch my drift."

"So, just a bunch of preppies and jocks?"

"On the surface, but there's a lot of other groups. Kids tend to form a lot of different tastes, you know?"

"Of cour-OMPH!"

I had bumped into what looked like the most unique person I have ever seen. He was tall, maybe taller than Ed. He wore an open brown jacket with a yellow shirt underneath, baggy brown khakis, and large red shoes. Like Ed, he also had only one eyebrow, but his eyes looked more focus and alert. His skin was of a darker tone and he had long hair that was dyed blue, and for a second I wondered if this was a recent trend or something. He then began to talk with an accent I couldn't recognize for the life of me.

"Hello there fast-talking-silver-tounge Eddy! Hello there new student!"

Well, at least he was friendly.

"What's up stretch?"

"Rolf has a favor for the fast Eddy. Rolf asks of you to talk to the school student council leader about using the school's football field for use of Kevin's American Football club."

Eddy groaned, "Can't you do that yourself? I don't want to see her right now, or ever if possible."

"Rolf has tried, she says that she'll talk to you since you're on our club roster."

Eddy looked furious when he said that, "What the hell? You put me on your ROSTER? I'm not part of your stupid club!"

"Rolf apologizes, we put you and the strong-as-ox Ed on there to keep the club afloat and so others will join."

"Well take us off! We don't want to be part of it!"

"Please do this favor for Rolf, for Rolf will make it worth your while."

Eddy thought for a bit, "Same deal?"

Rolf nodded, "The very same."

Eddy grinned and outstretched his arm, "Deal."

Eddy and Rolf shook hands. Rolf went over to where Kevin was, still on the ground. I was curious to what the two were talking about with their deal, but I found it best not to ask.

"Ok Double D, let me show you who runs this place."

"The school student council? But they don't have that kind of power."

Eddy laughed, "Yeah, I know, but they just have that kind of ego, y'know?"

* * *

We walked into the school building, where some classrooms were actually holding some tutoring classes on the weekend, we passed some girls who said hi to Eddy. Eddy winked at them, causing them to giggle.

"You're quite popular, aren't you?"

"Yeah, well I'm a people person." Eddy told me, "Now when we get to the council room, you just let me do the talking."

We stopped at an empty classroom and walked in, inside we saw someone I didn't expect to be in the President's seat of the school's student council.

"Hi there sweetheart." Lee Kanker, May's other step-sister, greeted us.

"Hey psycho."

It took me a bit to comprehend this, "She's the leader of the student council?"

"Hey, what did I tell you before?"

Lee ignored our banter, she sat in a seat behind a desk and had rested one of her legs on it, her other leg was over that one. She wore a short gray skirt with black stockings, a white dress shirt, and black shoes. She had a lot of orangeish red hair that obscured her eyes. "So what brings a handsome little man like you to this big room? Did you come crawling back to your true love?"

"Yeah right, look I'm just here because Rolf and Kevin need to-"

"Whatever, sure, but on one condition."

Eddy groaned again, "What?"

"I want dinner, you me, later today. I know a good place."

"No way."

"You don't have to pay for it, think of it as spending a romantic outing with the hottest girl of Anton."

"No. I know what'll happen if I go and it won't be pretty."

I got a bad feeling about what Eddy was talking about, and decided not to press for details. At least not yet. Eddy shook his head and asked "Look, is there anything else you want me to do?"

Lee shook her head, "Nope, that's all I want from you. Either that or no field for the weird talking guy and his American friend."

Eddy took a while to think it over and then grudgingly agreed to it, "Fine...but no funny business, we're just going to eat food and that's all."

Lee smugly smiled at him, "You're acting all paranoid, that's really cute, you know?"

Eddy and I took our leave. We started walking away and I had to ask him, "So...are you going to tell me what that was all about?"

Eddy sighed, "You don't want to know."

"I'm curious, did you two used to date or something?"

"Ok, look, let's just say that me and her used to be a thing...and it didn't work out so well okay?"

"So what happened?"

"Trouble in bed."

I stopped in my tracks, surprised at what I heard, "What?

Eddy looked back at me with a serious face, "She was into some weird stuff and it kinda hurt, so I broke it off. My body hurt for the next few days after that..."

"Oh my..."

Eddy and I kept walking down the hall, Eddy talking a bit about some of the more notable students at school, though I wasn't really paying attention. Most of what Eddy was saying was about who to go to for cheap videos and other items or test answers, and people who would write a paper for you for a small fee. He also talked about some of the more interesting teachers at Anton, like Ms. Pines the art teacher who doesn't wear underwear or Mr. Groski and Mrs. Badra who keep arguing about politics. Not like I needed to know about them. As we turned a corner, we saw a guy and girl making out. The guy letting his hands rub all over her. She was beautiful, she had bright blonde hair, wore a tight black and white shirt and tight jeans. She also had a lot of jewelry on such as bracelets, earrings, and a necklace. Eddy saw her, and pulled me towards the other direction.

"Who is that?" I asked.

"Trouble." Eddy replied.

The girl called out to us, "Hi Eddy! Who's your friend?"

"Keep walking, don't look back." Eddy told me.

"But I want to-"

"No, no you don't."

Eddy dragged me out of the school and into the courtyard filled where there weren't many other students, most of which must have went off campus or to their rooms.

"Care to tell me why you had to be so rude?" I asked Eddy.

"You should be thanking me. That was Nazz Freud, you should probably stay away from her since she's a user and all."

"Pardon?"

"She users her charm and early-developed body to woo guys into doing stuff for her, you know?"

I couldn't believe him, "What?"

"It's like this, she has a guy to do her homework, she has other guys to buy her stuff, she has some guys to help her bully other kids, it's a madhouse and none of the teachers will do anything because she has THEM wrapped around her finger since she's a quote, unquote, 'beautiful, innocent, flower' who won't dare to do anything."

"I think you're overreacting, she didn't look the type to-"

"Also, she's Kevin's girlfriend. You know, the one who constantly cheats on him?"

Then I remembered that Eddy did mention something like that, Eddy then got a call on his cell phone.

"Yeah? Yeah. Huh? What? Okay, okay, I'll be right there." Eddy hang up. "Hey man, I'm sorry to let you go like this but something came up and I need to go see someone about a thing. Can't explain, I'll see you later." Eddy ran off, going off campus and into town. I would've wondered what he had to do if not for the fact that I was finally free to go to the warehouse and check up on the supercomputer! I first went back to my room to grab my laptop, and some connection cables.

* * *

"Hello Eddward." Hanako greeted me as I logged into the supercomputer.

"Hello Hanako, I'm alone this time." I explained to Hanako what I was going to do, and how she could help. Together, we tried connecting my laptop with the supercomputer. Emulating all of UCCI was entirely out of the question given it's size and complex structure, but I did manage to begin establishing a telecommunication connection.

"Okay, I believe we've made some progress today." Hanako was quiet, it felt awkward being alone with her, so I tried striking up conversation. "So uh, how long have you been in UCCI?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. I can only remember up to the point where I was awakened by you and the others."

"I see...hmm..."

"Eddward, I've been thinking."

"Yes?"

"The first time you were here, you found that I am not part of UCCI's actual code. Correct?"

"Yes, I believe so."

"If that's true, then why am I here?"

I wasn't sure how to answer this, so I answered honestly. "I'm not sure. You're not a virus, and you appear the same way Ed and Eddy did but you weren't able to be divirtualized like them..."

This was puzzling, and something I would have to figure out for myself.

* * *

As I was walking back onto campus, Eddy ran up to me. "Dude, where the hell have you been? I've been looking all over for you!"

"I was over at the warehouse and-"

"Doesn't matter, come on!" Eddy ended up dragging me away, this time away from campus.

"Where are we going?"

"The hospital! Ed got injured after practice today by a severe electric shock!"

* * *

This was the first of what would later become many attacks. We got to the hospital room where Ed was recovering. May was already there.

"The nurse said he'll be okay, though he's not getting up anytime soon." May told us.

"H-how could this happen?" I asked.

"I talked to some of the guys from the hockey club," Eddy said as he lit a cigarette, "They said that Ed was just getting some chips from a vending machine when all of a sudden it went haywire and put a lot of juice into the big guy." Eddy took a drag from his cigarette.

"You know it's illegal to smoke in a hospital room, right?" May reminded him.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Eddy put it out, "Some of them said something about an 'eye' showing up for a split second before Ed touched the machine."

That sounded familiar, "Eddy, do you mean that 'eye' that was in..."

"Could be. I dunno. But here's the kicker, some other players used the machine before Ed, and it was working just fine!"

A machine causing serious damage, and a malicious eye. Two things that we've grown to recognize as the norm of what we deal with these days.

"Uh guys? You don't think that it's related to that place..." May said.

"Only one way to find out." Eddy told us.

* * *

We left Ed to the care of the hospital and headed back to the warehouse, and back to the supercomputer where Hanako greeted us.

"Hello again Eddward, hello Eddy, May...where's Ed?"

We explained to Hanako what had happened.

"An electric shock? An eye?"

"It looked like the same one from the spiders, tell me Hanako, is there anything strange happening in UCCI?"

Hanako thought for a bit.

"I have been feeling some odd tensions lately, vibrations actually. I've been feeling them ever since 900 hours..."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Yeah, if I felt something weird, I'd at least tell someone." May asked. Eddy went off to the side to smoke another cigarette.

"It didn't seem relevant at the time...but they've gotten stronger." Hanako told us.

"Whatever it is, it got to Ed. And it's gonna pay. I'm going in!" Eddy ran down the stairs.

"Eddy wait! You can't go in there alone!" I called after him.

May shook her head, "He's gonna get himself killed, I'll go with him." May went down after Eddy.

"WAIT! WAIT I SAID!"

"Eddward, maybe you should let them into UCCI." Hanako told me, "It may be the only thing to do at this point."

I wouldn't admit it, but she had a point, I gave in and set up the program to put Eddy and May into UCCI. Hanako said that the vibrations were coming from the frozen city region, and that's where I sent Eddy and May. The two were materialized outside the tower in the frozen city. May's avatar looked quite angelic, though her outfit was quite risque, it consisted of a skimpy red two piece outfit with gold bands around her arms and legs and red high heel shoes. There were what looked like two Glock 23 .40 caliber pistols in red holsters on her thighs. Her hair was much longer, and was flowing.

Eddy took one look at her, and his jaw dropped. "WHOA MOMMA! WHERE DID SUCH A HOT BABE LIKE YOU COME FROM?"

May got embarrassed, and slapped Eddy in the face. "I'm May you lousy pervert! Don't you recognize me?"

Eddy rubbed his cheek, "Nope. This is quite a change..." Eddy looked at her avatar all over.

"Stop looking at me!" May yelled.

"What? You're the one wearing barely nothing..."

"Would you two stop? You can kill each other when you get back, for now you have to figure out just what the heck is going on down there!" I yelled at them.

Hanako showed up outside the tower. "Shall we get going?" she asked, she then looked at May. "Oh my. That's an interesting outfit."

"Don't remind me."

* * *

The three of them started running through the frozen city, following the vibrations. Meanwhile, I tried searching where the vibrations were coming from, and I found that they were leading to another tower.

"Guys, the vibrations lead to a tower, it should be north by northwest."

The three of them stopped in their tracks, confused.

"A bit to your right..."

"Say Double-D, I've been wonderin'. What's with these towers anyhow?" Eddy asked.

"Well actually, they seem to have a connection to the scanners. They may be connected to the physical world."

"Do you guys think that's how the whatever-it-is got Ed?" May asked.

"If it is, that tower's gonna get smashed! Just think about what crazy things they could do!" exclaimed Eddy.

"Let's not be too hasty, we still don't know everything about these towers OR UCCI for that matter. Smashing it would destroy any potential study of it!" I told him.

"Study? Are you stupid or some-"

"LOOK OUT!" Eddy and May barely saw the large arrows being shot at them. The arrows came from a group of three skeletal-like creatures that had the bodies of human skeletons, only with their skulls replaced with spheres that had the same strange eye-like design as the spiders and the UEO logo. The three marrow men (as we like to call them) pointed their bone-like bows towards Eddy, May, and Hanako and shot out large arrows at them at incredible speeds. The three took refuge behind a building.

Eddy put a hand into his hat. "I hope they like explosions!" Eddy took out a hand of cards and threw them at the marrow men. Four out of five missed, and the one that did hit barely did any damage to one of them.

"My turn." May took out her pistols and jumped out of cover, firing what looked like light at the marrow men. She managed to hit one in the center of the eye, and it exploded. May got to more cover and blew over the barrel of the pistols.

"Man, that's not even fair." Eddy said as more arrows were shot at them.

"You might want to hurry, I see more of these marrow men coming towards you!" I told them, more enemies were heading towards them.

"Marrow men?" May asked.

"Yes, it means...nevermind, I'll tell you later."

"Alright, this is my last resort!" Eddy took out more cards and ran towards the marrow men in front of them.

"EDDY! ARE YOU INSANE?"

Eddy yelled as he charged towards the marrow men, throwing card after card at them. He somehow managed to miss but still have the card blow up one marrow man. "BOOYAH!" Eddy was then hit by an arrow, and yelled out in pain. As the marrow men aimed at Eddy again, it was shot in the head by May.

"Yeah! We kicked ass!" Eddy yelled out.

"What do you think you were doing? Last resort? Are you losing your mind?" May asked him.

"What? Don't got a taste for the dramatic?" Eddy retorted.

"Again, please stop you two. Eddy's fine and that's all that matters."

"See? He tells me I'm fine."

May was about to hit him, but Hanako then said "Look! There's the tower!"

The tower in question looked the same as the rest, but it had a hostile aura around it. The enemies from behind were getting closer.

"You three need to get in there. Figure out what's going on." I told them. The three ran up to the tower, but for some reason only Hanako could enter.

"The hell? Is there some kind of force field or something here?" Eddy asked.

"I'm not sure, you two will have to stay out and keep the marrow men at bay. Can you do that?"

Eddy laughed, "Sure, this'll be nothing compared to going out with Lee!"

"Going out with WHO?" May asked, the marrow men began to attack from both sides. The two were hopelessly outnumbered, but they kept trying to keep the marrow men at bay while Hanako was in the tower.

"Eddward, I'm in the tower. The data here looks corrupted, but I think I can fix it. It'll take time though." Hanako told me.

"Guys, did you hear that?"

"Yeah, we did. Don't worry Double-D, these ugly muthas won't get past us." Eddy told me.

Eddy pulled out what looked like another Joker card.

"OH HELL YEAH!" Eddy raised the card into the air, "TAKE THIS YOU UGLY ASS SONS OF BI-" and then the card blew up Eddy who was then devirtualized.

May and I didn't believed what happened, but then I heard Eddy yelling something downstairs.

"...Hanako, how's the data?" I asked.

"Still need more time, I just figured out what may be a pattern." Hanako told me.

"Oh great, now I have to take care of all of these things myself?" May asked.

Maybe not, there may be something I could do. I typed in a few commands and headed for the scanners. Eddy was halfway up the stairs.

"Doesn't strain so much this time. Double-D? What's going on?"

"Don't worry Eddy, just relax for now. And if you can, get to the computer, there are a few programs I need you to activate, but ONLY when I tell you."

I quickly explained to Eddy how to activate the already set programs, and then I got to the scanners. Eddy got to the computer.

"Now?" He called from above

"Now!"

Eddy activated the first program, which was to scan me into UCCI. How do I describe the virtualization process? Well, imagine that for only a second that every single molecule in your body starts to burn. And then, nothing. That's how it felt for me as I found myself in front of the tower near May.

"Double-D? Is that you?"

My own avatar looked robotic, it had red and white painted metal, and I held what looked like a science fiction raygun. I pulled the trigger on the raygun, and it shot out a beam of red energy. I fired it at one of the marrow men, but nothing happened. Then May got hit by an arrow and was damaged a bit.

"Double-D! What are you doing? Use your weapon!"

I had a feeling on how to use my weapon, I aimed it at May and pulled the trigger.

"WHAT ARE YOU...wait...that feels good."

I couldn't believe it, my weapon didn't harm the enemy, it healed my ally! I had a healing ray! What else? I'm wasn't sure at the time, but this would be enough for now. With this, May got out of cover and shot at the marrow men with more accuracy. With my healing ray, she wasn't too hurt when she got hit with an arrow, but she did have to take cover to heal fully. The marrow men were getting closer.

"Hanako, how's the data?" I asked.

"Nearly finished. Just one more..."

Suddenly, all of the marrow men stopped and vanished into data.

"Is it over?" May asked.

"I believe so." I told her.

"Great, should I activate the second program?" Eddy asked.

"Yes, get us back home."

Eddy activated the program that would devitualize May and myself. The feeling of being virtualized happened again, and I found myself fatigued as I gasped for air in the scanners room. May was near me in another scanner, out of breath as I was. We heard Eddy come downstairs to us.

"Welcome back to Earth, need a hand?"

* * *

We all got back to the supercomputer, where I managed to connect to the internet. Where there was a lot of news regarding machines going berserk and electrocuting people.

"Looks like Ed wasn't the only one who was in for a shock." Eddy joked, May lightly hit him saying he shouldn't joke about that.

One report was saying this, _"Authorities have established where the electrocutions have originated from. It appears that power lines connected to an abandon warehouse down by the docking district have been experiencing technical difficulty, providing electrical surges to the surrounding areas. A full search of the area will be conducted..."_

"That can't be good." May pointed out.

"Well, it looks like this will all be found out." Eddy said.

"Does this mean they'll find out about me?" Hanako asked.

I didn't want this to happen. I had to think about what could be done to avert this. Then I remembered something from yesterday. There was another program that was used frequently with the supercomputer, but I have yet to activate it. The Return To The Past. I typed feverishly again for the code.

"Double-D, what are you doing?" Eddy asked.

"There may be a way to avert all of this, just give me a minute..."

May looked over my shoulder, "...'Return To The Past'? What, is this thing also a time machine?"

I didn't know how to answer.

"Double-D, do you really think we should use this? We don't even know if it'll work."

Eddy had a bit of a point, but I didn't care, I wasn't going to let the police find out about UCCI. Not while there was so much more to find out about it. I typed in the code, and activated it. At first, nothing happened, but then a lot of code showed up, and then a blinding flash appeared from the center of the supercomputer. All three of us screamed from the light and Hanako asked what was happening.

* * *

When I came to, I was in bed, and it was morning. I checked my laptop and discovered that it was still Saturday. Confused, I walked out of my room and Eddy was there.

"...what the hell just happened?" Eddy asked, "How did we get back here?"

"I'm not sure, I don't know how to explain it but I think we really DID go back in time!"

Eddy and myself then realized something. "ED!"

The two of us ran to the cafeteria, catching up with May on the way, we found Ed eating a lot of breakfast again. When he saw us, he stopped. "Wow, déjà vu! Guys, I just had the weirdest dream and-"

* * *

We stopped Ed and we told him on what had happened, he was surprised about us knowing that he got electrocuted and that we had to go into UCCI to stop whatever was happening.

"That sounds so COOL! Think I can go in next time?" he asked.

"I dunno, this whole thing seems incredibly dangerous." May told him, "I mean, it was luck that nobody was killed or severely injured."

"That's my point though, nobody was really harmed and nobody seems to remember if it really happened." I told her.

"Yeah, but what if it happens again? What if whatever it was got a hold of something huge like a freight train or something?" Eddy asked.

"We can fight it! We know how, right?" Ed answered him, "Come on, it'll be fun!"

"Ed's immaturity aside, I still want to study the UCCI world. If it can control things in the real world, just imagine what we could do with such technology!" I couldn't hold my excitement.

"Looks like sockhead here is turning into a mad scientist." Eddy joked.

"It's a toque! Not a sock! And don't call me that!" I yelled.

"Okay then, you're an angry scientist." this got Ed to laugh with him and May giggled a bit but apologized.

* * *

After that, I went on to reconnect my computers with the supercomputer, alone again. Hanako also remembering what had happened.

"Do you think it will happen again?" I asked her.

"It is possible, though I don't feel any more vibrations. Whatever was causing it must have deactivated."

* * *

If only that was true. I later found out what had been causing the electrocutions. UEO, short for UCCI Enforcement Officer. I discovered that it had been created to watch over the Unlimited Compressed Coded Interface, and to root out anything that wasn't welcome. Sort of like an anti-virus artificial intelligence, it had gone rouge and activated a tower, and thus caused the electrocutions. I have a feeling that it won't stop there, but I'm sure that me and my friends will be ready to counter whatever it tries to do.

Until next time, farewell.

-Eddward Marion Leavitt

* * *

To Be Continued...


	3. Yet Another Odd Couple

_Author's Note: The theme for season one of Code UCCI can be found in this Youtube video: watch?v=-NcxACkuK9c_

_Enjoy!_

* * *

It was time for dinner when Edd walked into the cafeteria to find Eddy laughing and Ed having a huge smile on his face with a banana in his ear.

"Do I really want to know?" Edd sarcastically asked.

"What?" Ed asked.

"You'll have to speak louder Double-D." Eddy chuckled.

Edd sighed, "Ed, get that thing out of your ear. People are watching."

"What?" Ed asked.

"I know you can hear me, the banana is only in _one_ ear. You can hear perfectly fine with the other one."

Ed put the banana down with a frown, "Well there's no need to be a jerk about it..."

"Wow Double-D, I didn't know that you were such a killjoy." Eddy told him.

"Well, I've just got out of English Literature with Mr. Groski, so excuse me if I'm not in the mood for messing around."

"Ah, good old Mr. Liberal! What was he saying on the soapbox today?"

"Something about the American election, how Canada should take it as an example. Or something, I was too busy focusing on my essay."

"Americans are weird." Ed casually said.

Just then, Sam Black walked over to the three. "Okay, which one of you is Eddward?"

All three of the Eds glanced at each other, and then shrugged. Sam pinched his forehead. "Okay, which one of you is Eddward Leavitt?"

"That would be me, sir." Edd told him.

"Well, you're wanted in the headmaster's office. Now."

Eddy elbowed Ed, "Check it out Ed, Double-D's in trouble!"

Ed and Eddy started laughing as Edd and Sam left the cafeteria for the office of Dean Kanker, the head of the school and the Kanker sister's shared father.

* * *

Sam opened the office door where a tall young-looking bald man wearing a lavender suit and a black dress shirt was talking to another student who had darker skin and a short crew cut on his rather large head. The student wore a gray hoodie with the letters ICP in black on the front, stonewash jeans, and brown shoes.

"...and I told the police officer, 'That's not a polar bear! That's my wife!'"

The student and Dean Kanker laughed and Dean noticed Sam and Edd in the doorway.

"Sam! Come in old boy! Did you find Mr. Leavitt?""Sure did." Sam pushed Edd up to Dean. Dean outstretched his hand and shook Edd's.

"Eddward Leavitt, the name is Kanker, Dean Kanker. Headmaster, traveler, writer, pro wrestler, but enough about me. We are here to talk about Y-O-U as in you! Would ye kindly take a seat next to this young gentleman?" Sam had pulled up a chair next to the other student, Dean had stopped shaking Edd's hand and lead him to that chair and then took a seat behind his own desk. "Mr. Eddward Leavitt, age fourteen, grade nine, dorm room three-four-seven, I would like you to meet Mr. Jonathan Woods."

The student next to Edd waved, "Hi, I'm Jonny."

"Mr. Woods here will be joining our fine school as a new student officially starting tomorrow. I'm sure you're wondering what this has to do with you. Well, Mr. Woods here needs a dorm room A-S-A-P but unfortunately we're renovating the boy's dorms and there's no other empty spots so-"

"You're putting him with me?" Edd asked.

"Correct! Now, I know you specifically asked for a single dorm, but understand that this is an emergency and only temporary. Most importantly, it is the duty of all Anton Academy students to assist one another in a time of need."

_"Could have fooled me."_ Edd thought.

"In any case, this is your new dormmate for the time being. I trust that you will help him feel welcome! Now go show him the dorm and have a nice rest of your day!"

* * *

Edd and Jonny walked out of the office and headed for Edd's dorm room. Jonny carrying a navy blue duffel bag.

"So, got anything cool here? Any hot chicas?" Jonny asked.

"Nothing that I know of." Edd told him.

"Oh, alright, cool. I'll just figure it out myself. So what's with the single dorm thing?"

"I prefer solitude, it helps me with my work."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Don't worry about me, you won't even notice I'm there."

The two reached the dorm room where another bed was set up, Jonny looked around seeing all the parts and computers near the back of the room.

"Whoa, is this like your secret lab or something?"

"_No, that would be the warehouse."_ Edd thought.

"This is all just some personal projects, let me move them to give you-"

"What's this thing? It looks cool!" Jonny held up a little mechanical robot thing that was a bit bigger than his hand.

"That's just a prototype robot I'm working on. I call it the 'Mouse 2.0'"

"What's it do?"

"It's a cleaning robot, it has a vacuum on the bottom that is supposed to pick up small particles like dirt or food in carpet that regular vacuums can't normally get. It still has a few bugs to work out though."

Edd took the Mouse 2.0, set it on the floor, and turned it on. The Mouse ran right into the wall and fell over.

"Wow, you're like a regular Edison, huh?"

"What do you mean?" Edd asked as he picked up the mouse.

"Edison, you know, the guy who invented the light bulb?"

"I know that, but what did you mean by that?"

"Nothing hatin' about it, I just thought it was cool on how you built that thing. Looks like you got a lot of other stuff too in that pile over there."

Jonny pointed at the various prototypes and failed inventions. Edd shrugged and put the Mouse 2.0 with the others, and got to work moving them a bit. Jonny took the hint and started unpacking, one of the things he unpacked was a small 2x4 piece of wood with a smiley face drawn on it.

"The hell is that?" Eddy and Ed had walked into the dorm.

"Who wants to know?" Jonny asked, glaring at Eddy.

"Whoa kid, no need to be hostile. The name's Eddy, and this big guy is Ed."

* * *

After introducing one another, and explaining the situation, Eddy sat on Edd's bed as Ed helped Edd move his things to make room for Jonny.

"So, another American, eh?" Eddy asked.

"Yeah, my folks moved on up here due to their jobs. They figured that a boarding school would be good for me since they have to travel a lot and such."

Jonny had all his stuff unpacked, which wasn't all that much. Jonny had clothes, school books, a Gamestation Portable, the piece of wood he called "Plank" (that he held on to), a cell phone, and his wallet.

"So this is Plank?" Eddy asked, pointing at Plank.

"Yeah, me and him, we've been through a lot together." Jonny told Eddy. Plank stayed silent, and just smiled.

"Awesome, say has Double-D shown you around yet?"

"Nah, we just got here. Know anywhere we can eat?"

"Yeah, c'mon, I know a great place where they sell Chinese. You guys want anything?"

"No thank you, I'm not hungry." Edd told Eddy.

"I'll take some peanut butter chicken, and egg rolls!" Ed told Eddy.

"Alright, later Eds." Eddy, Jonny, and Plank left the room, Ed and Edd kept on moving Edd's stuff, keeping it neat and organized.

"Jonny seems nice, eh Double-D?" Ed asked.

"I suppose so, I just hope he doesn't find out about you-know-what." Edd told him.

"I know what?"

"Yes Ed, you know..."

"What do I know?"

"The secret Ed."

"What secret?"

"UCCI Ed! UCCI and Hanako!"

Ed gasped and covered Edd's mouth.

"Quiet Double-D! You never know who might be listening!"

Edd groaned, Ed let go.

"Well, I'm afraid that he might find out. I have information about all that on my computer, now that I have connected it with the supercomputer."

"Then put a password on it."

"I did, but I can't really use it with him in this room too. Sure, I got my laptop, but it's not as powerful..."

"Say Double-D, isn't connecting the computers dangerous? I mean, what if UEO finds a way out by following your connection?"

Edd raised an eyebrow.

"I saw it in a movie once."

"I already thought of that, so I put up a special firewall to ensure that any corrupting program will not be able to penetrate my systems."

"Wow, you don't waste time making that kind of stuff."

"Well, to be honest I set up that firewall years ago. To the best of my knowledge, it works with all viruses."

* * *

Eddy, Jonny, and Plank came back as soon as Ed and Edd finished up moving the parts. Ed and Eddy went back to their dorm room with their food.

The next day went by fast and Ed, Eddy, Jonny, Plank, and May sat together at dinner.

"Hey, where's Edison?" asked Jonny.

"Double-D? He's out seeing his girlfriend." Eddy told him. He and Ed snickered and May rolled her eyes.

"Cool, is she hot?"

Ed and Eddy just laughed some more.

"Ignore them. How are you and uhh Plank settling in?" asked May.

Jonny looked over at Plank, then to May, "Things are going a'ight."

"I'm probably going to regret asking, but why do you carry Plank everywhere?"

"What, you expect him to walk by himself?" Eddy asked, he and Ed laughed some more.

"You two remember the closet?" That shut Ed and Eddy up.

"Me and Plank go way back. See, my family moved around a lot when I was a kid. We never stayed in the same place for awhile. I always lost friends when we moved, so one day I took Plank and he moved along with me. He's helped me out of plenty jams."

"Wouldn't people have uhh...an issue with him?"

"The teachers don't seem to mind, but Plank says that they don't pay attention much anyway. There was some asshole named Alan who badmouthed plank the other day, but Plank taught him a lesson."

"Huh?"

"He hit him in the face with Plank and knocked him out. It was hilarious." Eddy told her.

"Plank doesn't take shit from anyone." Jonny told them.

Plank stayed silent and just smiled.

* * *

Meanwhile, Edd was down in the supercomputer lab under the warehouse.

"You can't use your computer?" asked Hanako.

"Yes, well, not at the moment. It won't be a good idea to use it to work on UCCI-related material until my roommate is moved. I don't think he can be fully trusted."

"Why not?"

"I just met him. How can I trust somebody I just met with a secret of this magnitude?"

"I had just met you, Ed, and Eddy the day I woke up. I trusted you all immediately. Also, if memory serves me right, you three trusted May and she was here the following day. As did I. What makes this Jonathan Woods any different?"

"Well, that's because he's-er..."

Edd had an answer, but he didn't want to say it out loud.

"Nevermind that. Let's focus on more important matters."

"Okay then. It still doesn't make much sense to me."

"Do you feel any vibrations today?"

"No, UEO must still be resting after the last attack. He hasn't been activated in so long, it must have taken a lot of his strength."

"I suppose that makes sense, though by now I'll accept any break we get."

"Have you found out how he managed to make the connection to your world?"

"No. The way UEO's programming acts is encrypted in some kind of customized code. It could take months to years to crack it with conventional hacking alone, but even then I wouldn't know how exactly to manipulate it. Whoever set all this up must've really knew what they were doing, it was like they made sure that the towers in UCCI wouldn't be controlled by anyone else."

"What about the 'Return to the Past'?"

"Well that's different. It appears that program was entered in manually several times over, so it was easy to copy and use it for myself. The towers on the other hand were activated by UEO."

"Oh, right."

"So, what have you done today?"

"Nothing much, just logging onto the internet. I can't believe how many things are on there! I could spend a long time looking through it all!"

"Yes, well, I've been working on something you may be interested in knowing."

"What would that be?"

"Well, I thought about how the devirtualization process could not work on you, so I figured that I could design a home brew program to make it work."

Hanako looked surprised, "Is that even possible?"

"Ed, Eddy, May, and myself were able to go into UCCI. Anything is possible."

* * *

After a bit, Edd made his way back to campus and his dorm room. Jonny wasn't there so Edd got onto his computer and started working on his programs. In the corner of the room, Edd didn't notice his Mouse 2.0 start up, and UEO's eye started to appear on it.

The Mouse 2.0 slowly and quietly made its way towards Edd. Electricity started to spark from its vacuum part. The door to the dorm room opened.

"Hey Edison! We need a fourth pla-the hell?"

Jonny and Edd noticed the Mouse 2.0, Edd jumped out of his seat as the spark from the Mouse 2.0 shot out and hit Edd's chair. Edd backed up to the door, lightly pushed Jonny out, and shut the door as the Mouse 2.0 charged at them. Edd and Jonny could hear it still hitting the door.

"Wow, you got some serious bugs to work out on that thing now. What the hell was that eye thing?"

Edd didn't have time to answer him, "Can't explain, I need to get Ed and Eddy. Make sure that my Mouse 2.0 doesn't get out or anyone tries to get in, okay?"

Edd ran down the hall, Jonny scratched his head and looked down at Plank.

"What should we do?" Plank stayed silent, and just smiled. Jonny nodded.

"A'ight, we'll do that."

* * *

Ed, Edd, and Eddy ran outside, Eddy had called May to meet them.

"So, what did UEO do this time?" May asked.

"He took control of one of my robots, we need to get to the warehouse fast."

"Sam is patrolling the exit for curfew breakers, we have to wait for him to go away."

"Screw that, I know a shortcut." Eddy said. Eddy led the group into the wooded area that was on campus and stopped at a stone structure with an opening on top.

Eddy opened it, and a foul smell escaped into the air.

"Wow! It smells just like my gym bag!" Ed exclaimed.

"I'll bet, this leads to the sewers, it's the perfect way to get in and out of campus undetected." Eddy explained.

"And how do you know this?" May asked him.

"Please save all your questions until after the tour." Eddy answered.

"Last one in is a rejected space cyclopes!" Ed yelled as he dived into the opening. A splash was heard.

May sighed, "We'll talk about this when this is over." May followed after Ed, climbing down.

"You can't be serious. This seems terribly risky and unsanitary to say the least." Edd told Eddy.

"Hey, if you want to wait here, be my guest. Maybe that rampaging robotic rodent will only harm a _few_ people."

Edd gave up and climbed down. Eddy went down after him, closing the opening.

"Okay team, follow me. I knew these sewers like the back issues of Jiggy Jiggy Monthly."

Eddy led the group down the dark, dank, and surprisingly spacious sewer. Edd was feeling uneasy due to the smell and being in the underground enclosed space that was home to the unknown.

"Do you guys ever get that feeling that you're being followed?" Ed asked.

"It's probably due to the lack of light, why didn't anyone bring a flashlight?" Edd asked.

"Sorry, I left my urban exploration gear in my room." May sarcastically told him.

"Would you guys shut up? I'm trying to focus here!" Eddy yelled.

After a bit more walking through the sewer, making many turns and hearing a lot of weird noises, Ed stopped."Did you guys here that?" he asked.

"We've been hearing things for a while, what _is _that?" May asked.

"I dunno, rats, mutant turtles, giant crocodiles, drug mules, it could be anything." Eddy told them.

"I hope you're kidding." Edd told him.

* * *

"Okay, we're here."

The group stopped at a ladder, Eddy went up first and peeked out of the manhole.

"Coast is clear, let's go!"

The group got up to the surface and went into the warehouse, into the elevator, and went down to the supercomputer lab. Edd took a seat on the computer chair and brought up Hanako.

"Everyone! The vibrations! UEO has activated a tower!"

"We know that, can you tell us where it's at?" Edd asked.

"I think it's in the volcanic region."

"I'll run a search, just to make sure, it'll save us time trying to locate it."

"Man, we have got to get a couch or something down here." Eddy thought out loud as he took a seat against the wall.

May went over to look at the scanners.

Ed went over by the elevator.

Suddenly, a noise came from the elevator.

"The hell is that?" Eddy asked.

"Is something in the elevator shaft?" May asked.

"Do not adjust your television set." Ed opened up the elevator.

It was empty.

Then, the maintenance door opened up, and something came out from it.

It was Plank!

"Hiya Plank! What are you doing here?" Ed asked as he grabbed Plank and pulled him down, bringing Jonny with him. Jonny's head got stuck in the maintenance door.

"Ow! Ow! Let go! Let go!"

* * *

The group got Jonny down and helped him inside the supercomputer room.

"Did you follow us?" May asked.

"Yeah, Edison was acting weird and there was that weird spark and eye and what the hell is this place? A spaceship? Are you guys _aliens_?"

"Oh so his _color_ is different..." Hanako pointed out.

Edd covered his face with his hand and shook his head.

"We're not aliens! Though that would be awesome. We're actually heroes!" Ed told Jonny.

Jonny raised an eyebrow.

"Jonny, can you keep a secret?" May asked.

* * *

With May talking and Ed making exaggerated hand gestures, the two explained all the group knew about UCCI. Eddy went off to the side for a smoke, and Edd was still looking for the activated tower.

"Okay, I sorta get it. So this 'you-eh-oh' thing just attacks at random?" Jonny asked.

"We're not sure, and that's what scares me." May told him.

"We're also the only ones that can fight it! Isn't that awesome? We're like the Z-Rangers!" Ed told him.

"Hell yeah that sounds awesome! Can I join you guys too?"

"Absolutely not." Edd said coldly, "We already have too many people who know about this as it is."

"Aww but Double-D, if he knows about it, you can work in your room with no worries!" Ed told him.

"He also followed us without being detected, and how did you get down the shaft?" May asked.

"Easy, I climbed down. I'm into urban exploration." Jonny told her.

"And he knocked out Alan with one hit. Only myself and Marie managed to pull that off." Eddy added.

"I myself would not mind more protection." Hanako told Edd.

The majority was against Edd, so he had to reluctantly agree. "Alright then, you're all going into the uncharted volcano region. Now, I don't know what kind of dangers are there so I'll stay behind this time to give you intel support."

Ed, Eddy, May, and Jonny ran down to the scanners, Edd's voice echoed to them.

"You four are to escort Hanako to the activated tower that is located twenty clicks west from where you'll be materialized. Watch out for any of UEO's monsters and don't touch any of the lava or other hazards, you will fall into what looks like an empty void."

The four scanners closed, and the four were virtualized.

* * *

Meanwhile back at Anton Academy, Kevin and Rolf along with a few other boys had gathered around the door to Edd and Jonny's dorm.

A loud noise came from it.

"Hey you geek! Some of us are trying to get some sleep!" Kevin yelled, other boys yelled with him and they banged on the door that was locked.

"Rolf has not heard such racket aside from Rolf's parents on Boxing Day."

Sam came up to the crowd, "Alright, alright! Return to your dorms before I suspend the whole lot of ya!" Sam knocked on the door, "Leavitt! Woods! What the hell are you two doing in there?"

There was no answer, Sam reached into his pocket and got out a key ring that held the master key to the boy's dormitory along to other keys. Sam unlocked the door and opened it revealing a large mechanical structure that combined most of Edd's prototype inventions and intention parts.

"What the hell is-"

The mechanical structure striked Sam and sent him flying back. Then the structure grabbed Edd's computer monitor and attached it to the top of its body, The monitor glowed a red eye and looked at the boys who had gathered in front of the door.

Words appeared on the monitor.

**"ARE OBJECTS HUMAN? YES. CHOICE OF ACTION? EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"**

Thinking fast, Kevin quickly shut the door and pushed himself against it to keep it from opening, Rolf pushed with him.

"Somebody find something to bar the door!" Kevin yelled.

Everyone else had ran off, Sam was out cold on the floor.

"Kevin, Rolf thinks we are in trouble." said Rolf.

"Yeah? No shit!"

* * *

On UCCI, Ed, Eddy, and May were materialized and waiting for Jonny to arrive. The supercomputer built Jonny's avatar as Jonny in full ninja garb with red ninja robes and a red ninja mask, along with a long blue scarf and a wooden mask with a smiley face that was attached to his chest. On his ninja belt were two sais and a small tool pouch.

"Lookin' good Jonnyboy!" Eddy told him, Jonny started laughing.

"You don't look so bad yourself!" the others laughed too.

"I really frickin hate this outfit..." Eddy muttered.

Hanako came out of the tower, "Are we ready?"

"As ready as we'll ever be." May told her.

"To the tower!" Ed yelled as he led the group of five into uncharted territory.

The group ran through the volcanic region, avoiding the lava pools and any geyser pits.

Ed then suddenly stopped.

"What's the hold up?" Eddy asked.

Ed pointed to the south, "They are coming! Monsters!"

"But I don't see any on screen Ed, you must be mistaken." Edd told them.

Ed shook his head and readied his spear, "They are coming! I can smell them!"

"That's just your pits Ed, you really need to shower more than once a month..." Eddy commented.

That's when a giant arrow was shot at them, the group looked up to see three marrow men riding on spiders coming down a volcano.

"They ride on spiders? Seriously?" May flatly said.

"You won't be able to outrun them! You need to create a diversion!" Edd announced.

"Alright, I'll do it!" Jonny got out his two sais.

"But you just got here, are you sure you know how to use those?" May asked.

"Nope! But hey, now's the best time to learn!" Jonny ran towards the monsters.

May sighed, and took out her guns, "I'll back him up, you guys go on ahead."

"Okay, good luck!" Hanako said as Ed led Eddy and her to the west as the marrow men closed in, more arrows were shot at Jonny and May.

"We just have to distract them, right?" Jonny asked.

"It would be better if we destroyed them." May answered.

"Okay! I got an idea!"

Jonny ran towards the marrow men, and they shot at him, but Jonny then ran in circles around them, the spiders weren't sure where to go.

They stayed in place and the marrow men tried to shoot at Jonny but he was too fast to hit.

This gave May the chance to shoot down the marrow men, one by one.

* * *

Back at Anton, Rolf and Kevin were still pushing on the door to Edd and Jonny's dorm, trying to keep the mechanical structure in.

"You'd think it would try the window by now!" Kevin yelled.

"Kevin, our efforts may become fruitless! The door and Rolf's back can't take much more!"

"Can the two of you tell us why a bunch of kids think the Exterminator is up here?" Lee and Marie had came up to the boys dorm, Marie saw Sam on the floor.

"Sam!" Marie went over to check on him. Lee noticed the banging from the dorm room.

"What's the big idea with that door?"

"Some kind of robot! That nerd who stays here probably built it to kill us!" Kevin told her.

Lee gave Kevin a stern look, "Are you high?"

"It is true! Rolf thinks-" Rolf was cut off by the door breaking, it came down on Rolf and Kevin but the two had gotten out of the way.

All four looked at the mechanical mannequin that was much bigger than the last time Kevin and Rolf saw it. It now had two screens, was taller, and had more mechanical items attached to it.

Both screens said one word that was constantly repeated.

**"EXTERMINATE!"**

"RUN!" yelled Kevin as he ran past Lee, Marie, and Sam. Rolf helped Sam up with Marie and they all ran after Kevin. The robot ran after them.

"What is that thing?" yelled Lee as the four got away from the robot. It was starting to gain up on them.

"In here!" Kevin opened a door and the others went in, Kevin shut the door and locked it from the inside. Kevin then pulled one of the drawers in the room and pushed it against the door.

The robot outside started banging on the door.

The group was in Kevin and Rolf's dorm, the poster of an American Football player hung on one wall and a lot of weird artifacts were hung on the other side. Rolf and Marie put Sam on one of the two beds.

Kevin went to the window, "Do you think we can get down from here?" Kevin asked Lee.

"We're on the third floor, we might be able to get down with the stationary fire ladder, there's supposed to be one in each room."

"Rolf knows where that is!" Rolf went to the closet and got out a box that contained the ladder.

"Alright, what about Sam?" Kevin asked.

"Unconscious." Marie told him.

"Getting him down might be a challenge. Why hasn't anyone called the police yet?" Lee asked.

"I'm guessing they won't believe a rampaging robot causing a ruckus." Kevin figured.

"Did you really plan to say it like that, or was the alliteration accidental?"

"Rolf thinks we should worry about that later." Rolf said as he finished adjusting the fire escape ladder.

"Okay, here's what we do: Lee and Rolf go down first, then you two will help Sam down, Marie and I will support you two, and we'd better hurry fast because I think that thing somehow got stronger."

More banging came from the door, the group went into action.

* * *

Ed, Eddy, and Hanako were nearing the activated tower, but a group of spiders blocked the entrance.

"Now it's my turn!" Ed yelled as he jumped into the air and pointed his spear down. He fell right onto one of the spiders, which exploded. Ed then got hit by the two other spiders who shot lasers at him.

"Check this out Hanako." Eddy drew five cards and threw them at the spiders. A low number card hit one of the spiders, but it didn't go down.

"Get inside! Me and Ed got this!"

"That's Ed and I, Eddy." Edd told him.

"What are ya? A grammar Nazi? You know those are really frickin' annoying."

Ed and Eddy kept the spiders busy while Hanako went into the tower. Inside the tower, Hanako went to the heart of the activated tower and began to deactivate it.

* * *

In Kevin and Rolf's dorm room, the door broke down and only Kevin was left in there.

The robot got closer to Kevin, and grabbed him with its cold mechanical arms.

The robot started crushing Kevin who let out a painful yell.

The screens on the robot glowed with the words** "EXTERMINATE!"** however, the words slowly dimmed and the grip on Kevin loosened.

Then the mechanical parts started to fall apart.

Kevin looked down at the heap of electronics while catching his breath.

* * *

"Eddward, I fixed the code." Hanako told him, the monsters that Ed, Eddy, May, and Jonny were fighting vanished into code just like the last time.

"ALRIGHT! We did it!" Ed yelled.

Edd folded his hands and took a deep breath. "Good, good…okay everyone, let's wrap this up with a 'Return to the Past'." Edd's voice reached everyone in UCCI.

"'Return to the Past?'" Jonny asked.

"It does exactly what it says." May told him as Edd activated the Return to the Past.

* * *

Jonny woke up and it was morning, he saw Plank sitting against the bed on the floor and Edd getting ready for classes, same as the morning before.

"Whoa, déjà vu." Jonny said as he put I left hand on his left temple, he felt really exhausted.

"Time travel and UCCI can be exhausting on the body, but you get used to it after awhile." Edd told him.

"So wait, all that was for real?"

"Yes, and I hope I can trust you to keep quiet about it. It's a secret to everybody."

"Aw, don't worry 'bout that! Plank and I know a lot about keeping quiet! Ain't that right, buddy?" Plank stayed silent and just smiled.

Edd scratched his head under his hat, "Right…well do you have any questions or concerns about any of this?"

"Just one, what did that computer girl Hanako or whatever mean when she said that I was a different color?"

Edd quickly looked at his watch, "Oh, would you look at the time. We're going to be late for class!" Edd said as he quickly walked out the door.

"You forgot your bag!" Jonny called after him, Edd came back and grabbed his bag.

"You'd better get moving too, the teachers get really angry if you're late." Edd left quickly, Jonny got out of bed and started to get dressed.

He looked over at Plank who stayed silent and just smiled.

"…he's just a sheltered rich boy Plank. There's no reason to get all riled up over him being a little bit racist."

Plank stayed silent, and just smiled.

"Yeah, you're right. Canadians can be weird." Jonny told him as he left the room.

* * *

To Be Continued...


End file.
